Making Martha Stewart’s Pumpkin and Chocolate Gobs (Whoopie Pies)

Xak and I have entered our “streaming boycott” phase. We’ve canceled almost all our subscriptions due to ridiculous price increases, and are stuck watching DVDs or whatever is free on Roku. 

This probably sounds like we’re watching a lot of made for TV films with an average IMDB rating of 4 stars or less, but in reality, we’re actually watching some quality content including the following:

• Murder She Wrote (every season including the 4 TV films made from 1997-2003)
• Pokemon (Indigo League, the annoying Tracey Sketchit season, and Johto league)
• Star Trek (endless episodes of The Original Series, TNG, and DS9)
• The Price is Right (Barker Era)
• Martha Bakes (Martha Stewart’s Baking classes)

Xak and I have been watching an episode of Martha Bakes each night during dinner. One of us plates the food while the other sets up the TV and selects the episode. We’ve gotten through old time desserts (like Blueberry Buckle), lemon themed recipes (like Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake), and bread (like Buttery Parker House rolls).

But the most recent episode we watched a week before Thanksgiving featured Pennsylvania Dutch desserts including Apple Dumplings, Montgomery Pie, and not one but TWO types of whoopie pies.

If you’ve never had a whoopie pie before, imagine a cake-y version of a sandwich cookie. Traditional whoopie pies are typically two round cake cookies with a white marshmallow-y or vanilla cream filling. However, I’ve seen some seasonal versions such as pumpkin (like Martha’s). I’ve had whoopie pies before at a lobster roll restaurant, which makes sense considering whoopie pies were declared the official state treat of Maine. The actual origin of whoopie pies are debated with the Pennsylvania Amish community also taking ownership. Regardless of where they first came from, they’re pretty tasty. Think of a Little Debbie cake but homemade and better.

We are both big sandwich cookie fans (hello, Oreos and Macarons), so no surprise that Xak absolutely loves whoopie pies… only he doesn’t call them whoopie pies. He calls them “gobs.” Supposedly this is what whoopie pies are called in the Pittsburgh region, but I have never once met anyone else other than Xak and his family who calls them gobs. Regardless of the name, they rank pretty high up there in Xak’s list of favorite desserts. Not quite at smores level, but it’s very close.

Xak’s entire family is a huge fan of gobs (seriously, all of them call them gobs too). During our first trip to Pennsylvania together, Xak insisted we stop at this place called Snida’s (previously known as Ida’s) out in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This was a place that Xak used to visit frequently on trips for the sole purpose of buying gobs. We ended up picking enough for the entire family.

Gobs have a lot of sentimental value for Xak, so when we watched Martha measure out flour and pop open a can of pumpkin puree, I knew that we would be having gobs sometime soon. Xak declared that this year instead of our traditional cheesecake Thanksgiving dessert we were trying something new: Pumpkin Gobs and Chocolate Gobs.

Gob Ingredients

Xak started first with the pumpkin gobs. The ingredients for gobs are pretty similar to cake. In fact, if I did not know of Xak’s plans in advance, I would have assumed he was making some sort of pumpkin spice cake. Flour, sugar, dark brown sugar, eggs, baking powder/soda, and spices are pretty much the basis for any yummy fall dessert. 

Preparing the Gobs

In typical baking fashion, dry ingredients get mixed in one bowl while wet ingredients in another. I know there’s probably a reason for this (like making sure the leavening is evenly distributed. Does that sound legitimate? ), but I really hate how baking always means dirtying multiple bowls and spoons when everything eventually makes its way into one bowl. The good news was that the pumpkin gobs didn’t require the use of the stand mixer (which is the most annoying thing to wash in my opinion) Luckily, Xak is perfectly happy washing every individual bowl, spoon, cup, and utensil he uses to make his bakes. 

In the Martha Bakes episode, Martha’s gob batter had been stiff enough to simply use an ice cream scoop to collect the batter and then plopped onto a regular cookie sheet.

However this wasn’t the case for Xak’s. Even though he followed Martha’s recipe exactly, the batter was wetter and was in danger of becoming a sheet of gob instead of individual cookies. Still delicious sounding, but not the same. 

In the back of one of our cabinets, we actually have a baking pan specifically for gobs. It’s actually specifically for muffin tops, however that is the perfect size/shape that you want for a gob. Xak has used it approximately one time prior to 2024 back when he attempted gobs back in 2019 or 2020. It’s been sitting there unused for years. After dusting it off and doing a quick rinse, it was time to put the gob baking pan to the test. 

The gob pan worked! It has shallow indentations which allows the batter to fill up the right amount of space without overflowing into each other. It’s also really helpful to ensure that each cookie is an identical size. The cookies were safely placed into the oven.

Preparing the Gob Filling

After baking and cooling, Xak moved onto the cream cheese filling which would be used to sandwich two Pumpkin gobs together. I love any dessert that has cream cheese icing. Typically this is paired with desserts like carrot cake or spice cake. No wonder I love cream cheese icing so much.

Xak filled a piping bag with the cream cheese filling and carefully piped out a healthy (unhealthy?) amount on one cookie before placing another on top. After each cookie was assembled (and reluctantly left uneaten), each was individually wrapped in a piece of cling film and then placed in the refrigerator to chill. This removes a little bit of the stickiness and also because Xak insists that gobs are best served cold.

The next day, Xak went through the same exercise for his chocolate gobs. The ingredients were a little different (cocoa powder replacing the pumpkin puree and buttermilk was needed). This recipe only needed one bowl (yay!) but it required the stand mixer (boo). The end result was a delicious looking chocolate cake batter, similar to the chocolate cake that Xak makes every year for my birthday.

For the chocolate gobs, instead of cream cheese filling, Xak prepared vanilla buttercream. Once each pair of cookies were filled, wrapped, and placed in the refrigerator, we had to experience an entire 24 hours of walking past the refrigerator without touching them. Torture.

Thanksgiving Dessert

When Thanksgiving morning arrived, Xak and I were so busy preparing the turkey, side dishes, and appetizers along with cheering and crying over Vito the Pug winning the Purina Dog show that we were able to stay clear of the gobs until dessert FINALLY arrived.

Each guest selected their desired flavor, but Xak and I decided to split one of each. They were fantastic! The pumpkin gobs were noticeably rounder (and cuter, in my opinion) while the chocolate gobs seemed to have spread out a little bit more. The chocolate one was quite sweet whereas the pumpkin had a nice amount of spice with some tang coming from the cream cheese. Honestly, I find it difficult to choose between the two and I am so glad I don’t have to. Thank you, Xak for baking such a delicious Thanksgiving dessert!

Looks like we don’t have to go to Pennsylvania anymore to get our gobs fix. (Just kidding, we’ll see you on our next trip, Snida’s)